Chapter 25 - Upstairs
His name shuddering from Catherine’s lips crushed into Aidan’s chest like a fist. He recognised her pain when she struggled to talk with him. It didn’t matter. That she was right at his side, shaking and stammering did.?
He couldn’t scare her now. Couldn’t pull her into him. Acting on impulse had gotten them into this mess. And if it killed him to wait for what her saying his name right now meant, he’d die a happy man.
But Catherine turned around. She faced him. Her eyes meeting his undid him. Aidan closed the distance between them without second thought. She was solid in his arms — real warmth, real weight — and his lips found her mouth without any finesse.
Everything she had ever meant to him poured into it.
Every single night he’d spent longing to make things right between them.
It was too much. Too raw. He knew it. But he couldn’t stop.
And she didn’t withdraw. Her mouth met his with the same despair that split his chest open.
Pressure. Hunger. Depth. She matched him in kind.
Aidan realised he was shaking. A sound vibrated from her throat, trembled against his lips. Small. Scared?
He didn’t know.
Pulling back from her mouth was pain. Breathing scraped raw against his ribs when their lips parted, his arms clenching around her body still nestled against his chest. He exhaled and forced his grip to loosen — unable to fully let go of her. His forehead found hers, touched it.
For a couple of breaths they just stood there like this. Head to head. Chest to chest. Her heart was hammering against his ribs. Catherine’s hand travelled over his arm and shoulder and found his jaw. Small fingers came to rest against his bare skin.
She lifted to her toes this time, her mouth soft against his lips.
A question without words. Something he had not even known was tight finally softened in his chest, and he leaned in.
Let her explore him on her terms. Almost timid at first.
Just skin against skin, breath mingling in their shared closeness.
His hands reverently caressed down the length of her spine, then up again, just to make sure she was still real. She met his touch with a small shudder when his palms left the heavy layers of fabric encasing her and found the bare skin of her shoulders.
He felt the grazing of her teeth against his bottom lip. A nibble. His own mouth stretched to a smile beneath hers, then he surrendered to her quiet request. He deepened the kiss, and this time her whole body softened into his when they explored each other.
His lips tingled when they broke the kiss this time, his eyes carefully searching her face.
Her skin was flushed, heat radiated from her cheeks, but she held his gaze — stubborn as ever.
The same ridiculously brave, strong-willed woman that had thrown a pine cone at him.
Embarrassment threatened to settle. Her throat moved when she swallowed hard.
Her eyes darted upstairs. She started to chew on the inside of her bottom lip, and Aidan gently shook his head. His own voice was barely more than a ragged breath.
“Don’t.”
Her eyes widened. Confusion. Then shock. Aidan noted his mistake and shook his head harder.
“No, stop it, little Lady! You don’t need to ask me, that’s… all I meant to say.”
He breathed another kiss against her lips. Just as unfit to put in words what she was too afraid to ask.
A slow exhale.
“I’ve been yours the moment you didn’t scream in that changing chamber.”
He shrugged, not at ease with the confession.
He still kept talking.
“What I want doesn’t matter right now, Catherine. You decide.”
Her fingers threaded through his.
Aidan wasn’t entirely sure how they made it upstairs. Not with her hand trembling in his. With her kiss still searing his lips.
Her hands tugged at his jacket. His own fingers were stiff and clumsy — too impatient, too shaken for precision — when he tugged at endless rows of tiny hooks that didn’t want to give way.
They made it inside her chamber.
The door fell shut, the click of the lock shutting out the world.